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Micro$ofts last gaming hurrah?

IntroWith the next generation of video game consoles just around the corner for the end of 2013, I thought I'd put my many years of experience of the current consoles to use, detailing the highs and lows of the Xbox 360. Now that several years have passed with Microsoft's second console under the all seeing eyes of gamers, its memorable moments shall be described for all to see and its failings held accountable...

BirthAlthough Microsoft beat Sony to release their console by almost a whole year, its launch was a mixed bag. 2 versions of consoles being released really messed people about, especially those who had been gifted the console. It was 'Core' or 'Premium' with a difference of £70. In hindsight, £280 for a gaming console seems quite acceptable, but when there is a seemingly just as good version of it available at £210, one might wonder what's the difference? Memory. The Core version, simply did not have anywhere near enough memory to handle all your game saves and downloads, where as the Premium had a good 20GB to fill. Regardless, because of the lack of competition from Sony, sales went through roof for the only new generation console on the market. Despite beating Sony to the punch, the 360 didn't have a whole bunch of must have games, but was rather demonstration of what was to come, with various arcade titles highlighting solid, smooth gameplay and AAA games shown in HD graphical splendor. Its bests were The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Gears of War (Both 2006) but it wasn't until Halo 3's release that the console really became worthwhile.

LifeAfter the fiasco of the release and its versions, a handful more were release, the Elite (Which is what I currently own) saw the white case turn black, Harddrive increase in capacity and... well thats about it. Later on, there would be another change introduced - the new sleek design, being smaller, slimmer and including a wireless adapter for the first time. Not all new editions were so popular however, the 'Kinect' camera being a take it or leave it situation (best left for younger, casual gamers with a huge area to play in. To think I almost forgot the infamous 'Red Ring of Death' that plagued so many gamers, rendering their machines totally useless. Nor can I forget, or forgive the lack of backwards compatibility for old Xbox games - 478 are playable, but quick look at the list and you'll find one of your most treasured titles missing. Speaking from experience, my console has had several minor issues that mostly just frustrate more than anything, that said, it did have its positives.

DeathWhile I still don't believe games are ready to be moved onto a new generation of console (graphics and gameplay still aren't improving fast enough, nor are PC games boasting truly superior capabilities) Microsoft announce the Xbox One. How dim. If ever there was a way to alienate the majority of your audience, Microsoft did it. With plans to make the console 'always online' needing to check in every 24 hours, the 'always watching you' plugged in and recording camera no longer optional, DRM eliminating the prospect of used games and or borrowing. Needless to say, gamers did not take this sitting down and took to the internet to lay down the law. Microsoft have since abandoned several of these policies (no doubt due to Sony's reluctance to join in the DRM bandwagon, the Amazon survey detailed how ludicrously low the pre-order count was for the Xbox vs the PS4 and of course the gamers outcry in general). It is still a strong £80 more expensive than a PS4, still comes with that creepy camera no one wants and Microsoft still want you to treat it as your new entertainment system for watching sports on TV and playing Call of Duty, all whilst waving to the guys on the other end of the camera, no doubt fiddling with themselves.

- The controllers 'bumpers' being far to weak to withstand prolonged use- The disc trey being frighteningly similar to a Dairy Milk Chocolate 'tray- The trey not reading discs or not ejecting properly (mine needs a good smack;)- With a disc in the trey it sounds like a plane taking off regardless if it is on the HD- You can't play the arcade games YOU paid for offline- Playing online multiplayer is £40 a year (PSN is free)- Dashboard looks horrible as advertisements take priority over your games- Ads dont go away even if you pay for a Gold Subscription

From late 2005 to 2013, the console and its contents have undergone several changes both on the outside and in. The dashboard for example has gotten increasingly sickening with its many, many, MANY advertisements getting huge sections of the screen whilst your 'play game' button gets the tiniest of all. Optional media updates were made available so people can watch all sorts of video and play music of their choosing. Various apps and services were introduced such as Facebook, Youtube, Netflix and the highly unnecessary Bing search bar.

"Is the console worth your time?"Sure.

"Is it worth the money (online subscriptions included)?"Not really.

"Would I take back any of those golden xbox live memories with my friends?"Nah.

"Did I actually enjoy its games?"Yes, Many.

"Would I recommend this console then, now or its future version?"Not on your life.

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Excellent buy for Entertainment

Everybody knows the feeling; you're staring at that shiny black box and know that you just have to have it. That is how I felt when my sister had bought her XBOX 360 Console, I played on the games for hours and it was so much fun that I decided to invest in one myself. Me and my partner are very competitive so I thought this would be the perfect addition to our home. As this has been out for a couple of years we got a package deal which is amazing and cost me £199 for the console, wireless remote, 4 games and the Kinect. It provides us with hours of fun and you can get games for roughly £10, so it won't break the bank. The game is great for hours of family fun, it is great for all ages and can also improve fitness. You can connect to the internet for those who like to play on games such as COD but unfortunately I am not a gaming mad person, I bought this solely for entertainment purposes. It is easy to set up, it took me and my partner around 10 minutes to set up and simple for people of all ages to use, it brings the family and couples together. I enjoy game nights with my friends and couldn't have spent my money on anything better. Most consoles only have the wireless/wired controllers and the XBOX console with Kinect takes gaming to a whole new level. The console looks great on my TV cabinet, easy to use, not too many wires, easy set-up, noise level is low and I personally cannot fault the console. You can buy all sorts of additional extras for this console and I would recommend this, it has so many uses and the memory is also brilliant, stores all of my games (And scores ready for my next competition) and I also use my console as a DVD player therefore no changing of wires around the back of the TV is required. If you're considering buying a console then I would highly recommend the XBOX 360.

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Ideal console for gaming and mulitmedia

----------------------------------When I bought this Product----------------------------------

Around October 2011 I had been viewing trailers and game play videos for the game Forza Motorsport 4 and decided that I would buy myself one providing they weren't too expensive.

I saw that they were selling them for £149.99 in Argos and were also doing an offer where you got Forza 4 included for free which I thought was very reasonable as I'm sure that the game had only been out no longer than a month or two.

I bought this from Argos and started to set it up as soon as I got home, it was very easy to set up and took me through all the steps to connect it to my wireless network and set up an Xbox live profile.

-----------Storage-----------

This model of Xbox has eliminated the use of the plug in memory cards used in the previous versions of this console, it now offers up to 4gb of internal flash storage instead (although I believe you lose a little bit of space as it's reserved by the system) which offers plenty of storage to store your save files and one or two demos (depending on size).

As well as the internal flash memory there is a slot located on the side of the console for you to insert a hard drive which has been changed from the big plastic casing to a really thin black casing that just clips onto the hard drive (if you own an original hard drive you can remove it from the casing and buy the newer style case from eBay for around £5).

------------Installing games------------

To save wear and tear on the consoles internal components games can be installed to the hard drive which as well as reducing wear and tear it also quietens the console down when playing games as the disc doesn't need to be read so often (only on start up to verify the disk is real).

Most games take up a lot of space when installed so it would be a good idea to fit a larger hard drive when your gaming collection starts to expand.

This console features touch panels in place of the power and eject buttons which can save a lot of time when switching the console on if you have difficulty pressing the buttons for any reason, the only annoying thing about this is that if you brush against the consoles buttons while moving it or anything close by it switches the console on (I counter this by having the console pushed further back so that this doesn't happen quite so often).

------------------------Expandable storage------------------------

An update released for the Xbox allowed certain flash drives to be configured by the console to be used as hard drive (although only up to 16gb and only certain files can be saved onto it), I find that some games still require a proper hard drive to access certain features.

------------Summary ------------

Good Points:*Hard drive easier to upgrade than original console *Less risk of RROD*Internal Flash Storage built in

Bad Points:*No slots for memory cards*Installing games takes a while*Touch buttons are really sensitive*Xbox live can be expensive (up to £40 for a 12 month sub)

------------------Overall Rating------------------

I have owned this console for just under two years and have so far not had a problem with it, I also owned an original style 360 and find this console a lot quieter than the old one so would recommend this to anyone that has an old style console and is looking to upgrade, I give this a 4 star rating (I would give it a 5 star if it hadn't been for the touch sensitive controls)

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A decent console. I know I've had a go at it but in fairness it's pretty great.

I got the xbox only because all my friends were and didn't want to feel left out. I'm pretty pathetic really. Anyway, I wasn't expecting to like it but I actually quite do.

Design

The design is just so sleek and stylish. It's such an unusual shape which you wouldn't expect and I really found that the size wasn't so bad either. It was smaller than my PS3 slim which as a matter of a fact is decidedly not so. The Matt black makes it look professional. I think it looks a tad tacky when shiny but really makes no difference to its function. Also the touch button is nice. All I have to do is give it a small tap and WHOOSH! It's away. It actually starts quite fast. This can get annoying though. I keep the xbox in one of the cupboards in my desk and if there is enough movement then it actually turns on the console just when I open the cupboard door! Annoying! They're a great idea but I, personally just preferred the standard button operated ON button. 7/10

Performance

The speed that the xbox acts at is impressive. There's no awkward start-up menus or loading screens. Just a little xbox sign and a funky noise and your away. The graphics are impressive. I think that they are just ever so slightly over-shadowed by the PS3 but only just. I can play games though no problem but things get slightly blurred every so often not too bad. 7/10

Controller

The controller wasn't my favorite part. Whereas some people prefer the controller to all else, myself, I prefer the PlayStation controller. I've been using them for ever now and whereas that probably contributes towards my decision, I just can't get into the style of the xbox controller. It's also expensive to run them if your using it at least a few hours a day as batteries can drain quickly. 5/10

Menus

This might not seem like an important feature to look at but I'm going to anyway. The menu is like a little flip chart of screens. You can flick through them one after another. This is pretty cool. The, you have the equivalent of the home button. Now, I'm not really fond of the menu as it can be a little hard to use just seems like something that you would see on a social networking site. Not the best but will be to some peoples preferences. 6/10

Overall

The console has a nice design and feel when playing. Does have things that make things a little awkward like the menus and of course the uncomfortable controller but many people love those so that would just be a matter of opinion. Memory not the best so If you would be getting one I would save a bit longer and spring for the massively increased memory.

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Multi-Functional Gaming Device

I have had my Xbox 360 for about 6 months and I think after having loads of gaming systems over the years it's probably the best I have had but as the same time there are 1 or 2 things that I'm not to keen on.

-------------Look & Design--------------When I first saw the design of the X Box I was very impressed because even though it's a tad big it's very neat and has a nice shape. The Xbox is touch sensitive so to turn it on and put a game disc in you just touch the area in to do either. I really thought this was a cool idea when I first got my Xbox but after I started noticing how sensitive it actually is it started to get annoying. The slightest movement next to any of the buttons will get the X box up and running so when cleaning my room or stuff like that it used to always turn on. Sometimes it would turn on by accident and I wouldn't know and it would end up being left on all day which is not good as that's a waste of electric. To solve this problem I have had to result to getting a shelf put up and have it on there instead but to be fair my room is much neater now than having it on the floor. Best to keep an Xbox out the way because of the sensitivity button design they have used. Although the sensitive buttons are a nice feature to the design I don't actually think they are really that necessary. One thing that does really annoying me is how loud the disk tray spinning sounds can be when I am playing a game. It's very loud but usually when I get into a game I zone it out so it's not to bad but it was when I first got it.

-------------Set Up--------------The set up was very easy and straight forward it was just a matter of matching the wires to the right holes. Once you turn it on you create your Xbox live account which is used for the social aspects of the Xbox. You only get one chance to pick your gamer tag so I would suggest picking wisely because you have to pay to change it. Once you have created you account you can then download apps, music and various other things. To play game you just enter the disc and the game icon will be on your homepage when you enter your account and simply just click it to play. I think set up is pretty simple and they guide you through everything so it's simple for anyone.

-----------Controller--------------My console came with a wireless controller which I find so handy not having a wire because my TV is quite far from my bed so I can still use it. Sometimes my room gets a bit cold and if I'm playing a calm game, browsing the web or looking for something to watch I can still use the controller from under my sheets and it still works so there is a decent connection between the Xbox and it's controller. The controller for me took a little getting used to since I have always been a PlayStation Gamer so took some getting used to. The controller uses AA batteries and I find that they run out relatively quickly and probably a month is the longest they have lasted so I suggest stacking up on them if your a constant gamer. The batteries go in the back of the control but I find when I get into my hardcore gamer mode and start flashing the remote about the batteries tend to shift out of place and make the remote lose connection to the Xbox. This has happened about 2 or 3 times and is annoying because I have to turn the remote back on then unpause my game but since it don't happen often it's OK.

------------Wireless & Xbox Live--------------If you have wireless internet you can connect it to the internet and do lots of other stuff. Connecting to wireless is only good if you also have an Xbox live account and that you have to pay for. I brought a 1 year membership for £39.99 which is actually the best offer they have. To me I think since you already pay for a wireless connection I don't see why they expect you to pay for Xbox live aswell but it does make the Xbox a better gaming system if you do have Live.

Live is what makes the console as good as it is because it allows you to have sort of a social networking style friendships with other gamers and play games with people all over the world. there's not always going to be a time where you have someone to have a little competition a Live opens that door so you always have someone to play against because 9 times out of 10 someone in the world will be online playing your game. The only time I really use Live with game is when I'm playing competitive games such as the London 2012 Olympics game I have.Along with playing games with people around the world you can add them as friends and send an receive messages from them. I'm not really into the social aspects like this on my Xbox but I guess for those who will enjoy this it's nice to have. You can also get ratings from other gamers and invite gamers to come and play with you. I always invite people to play if I'm playing London 2012 because it has seem to gone dead since the Olympics is over.

Other Live perks are the apps that you can download and use from you Xbox. Some of the ones I have are Netflix, 4oD and Internet Explorer which recently became available. I like being able to watch stuff from my Xbox that I missed or just movies from Netflix. It's got to the point where I don't actually use my TV to watch regular TV I always just turn on my Xbox and watch stuff from there. Also because I don't have a laptop that I can take to my room I sometimes browse the web on my Xbox because I can do it from bed and my TV is a much bigger screen than my phone or iPod so that's another bonus for Live.If your someone that would download loads of music and extras to your Xbox I don't really think the 4gb would be for you and it would be wiser to get the 250gb as 4gb will run out very quickly. For me 4gb fine because all I really wanted on there is the three apps mentions earlier.

-------------Game Points--------------On an Xbox you earn game points for completing various tasks in all the games you play. They don't really mean anything but I like completing games and getting all the game point for all the games I get because it's like a little achievement and everyone can see how many game points you have so the more I have the better gamer I look like. It gives me something to work towards I suppose.

----------Overall-----------I think Xbox 360 is a very good console and think if you are going to get one it's probably almost essential to get it with Live subscription with it. I use mine almost everyday not always for gaming but sometimes for other things and it comes in handy in more ways that just gaming. It's very multi functional and I would recommend ever household have one. There are so many different genres of games that you can play on this system making it something for everyone. With the Kinect that you can now connect to it it has now also became a family console like the Wii. This 4gb version of the console can be brought brand new for 139.99 on Amazon and the 250gb version form 189.99 on Amazon.

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I absolutely love my xbox, its one of the best things i've bought, it keeps me entertained for hours, there is so much to do on this console ranging from gaming to watching newly released films and music, you have applications like Sky, Last.fm, 4oD etc.I have owned an xbox ever since the first one came out and would never change for another console. You can easily play online with friends and family or play solo, you have awesome accessories for online play like thoat microphones, keyboards for the controllers and downloadable content. You can now also get funky covers to make your xbox more personal.

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Great console but not enough memory

I bought the new 4 gig Xbox to use the Kinect for. Its easy to set up and takes very little time. It is cheaper than the 250G model but to be honest I would recommend to buy the 250G model or an older one with much memory. This because you cannot play enough game on it, the newer games need much more storage to play and this means that you either cant play selected games or even delete the history of games that you still play. Other than the lack of memory it is very good, it is very quite so you can play at any time without worrying about the noise. The console looks good and would not be out of place in any room. You have a wide variation of games that you can play, there is loads of different genres for any one who wants to play. All of the games are fun and easy to play, In conclusion I would recommend getting and xbox but not this one, one with a better memory would be much better.

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An excellent, multi-purpose investment.

When I moved into a new flat, brought a new tv, I decided to treat myself to something I'd been wanting for a while, that is, a game console. However, I'm not terribly up-to-date on what's hot and what's not, so I asked around to find out what there was. And for my needs, the xbox came out as the clear favourite. The Wii was turned down because it's too "kiddy" and lacked a great selection of readily available adult games. The Playstation 3 was said to be too dated, so that left the xbox.

I was very pleased to find out that it was also able to play DVD's, which was a big plus for me, as I have a large DVD collection and spend a lot of time watching films. In fact, I spend a lot more time using it as a DVD player than playing games on it!

Navigation And Use - It was very easy to set up. Literally "plug and play". The controller feels comfortable and solid in your hand, without being too heavy. The buttons and sticks are easy to use, but I did find that the sticks weren't sensitive enough at times when in the heat of the action during a game.The on-screen instructions are clear and easy to us.

Quality - The quality of graphics on-screen are excellent. Clear and sharp.

In all, a highly recommended product.

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A very good console

Introduction

The Xbox 360 Slim is Microsoft's new and updated slimline Xbox 360 console, it was released on the June 18th 2010. I used to own a old style original Xbox 360 and to be honest apart from once getting the red ring of death error and having to send my console away to be repaired that original Xbox was terrific it did what I wanted from a current generation games console and it had some great games to be played on the system.

I ended up with some spare money left over for once reason or another and I thought that I liked the look of the newer slim model and was pleased to hear that it had updated hardware so I talked myself into selling my original Xbox 360 and splashing out on this model.

The slim Xbox 360 comes in two different packages the cheapest being this model the one I bought. It comes with 4GB memory and an Black Matte finsihe the more expensive package comes with a 250GB memory and also an Black matte finishe the price difference between the package with the 4GB memory and the 250GB memory is not that expensive and I would recommend that you go for the 250GB package if you are looking at buying a Xbox 360.

The slim Xbox 360 comes in two different packages the cheapest being this model the one I bought. It comes with 4GB memory and an Black Matte finsihe the more expensive package comes with a 250GB memory and also an Black matte finishe the price difference between the package with the 4GB memory and the 250GB memory is not that expensive and I would recommend that you go for the 250GB package if you are looking at buying a Xbox 360.

amazon.co.uk £148.29play.com £148.29

My opinion

In my opinion I really like the new Xbox 360 because you get a lot of console for the price. I feel that microsoft has put a lot of effort into keeping the xbox 360 up to date. What I mean by this is that they have updated the system so you have got lots of apps on the dashboard such as Youtube, Lovefilm and lots of other apps you have to be connected to the internet to use the apps but you can use most of the apps for free.

You can use your Xbox for playing games, watching moves and listening to music, it's like a all in one entertainment system and it does all of those things well.

I would say that the only thing that is wrong with this console is that if you are going to buy this console then 4GB is not enough memory, I have downloaded demos from the Xboxlive marketplace and they can be at least 1GB each in memory. I would recommend that you buy the 250 GB package or upgrade your hard drive at a later date like I'm going to.

Looks and feel

I think that the new Xbox 360 looks and feels a lot better than the old one, it's slightly smaller than it's older brother and it now has touch sensitive buttons for turning on the console and opening the disc drive it is a very satisfying feeling when the buttons are used it helps just to give a slightly more premium feel to the console.

Summery

I really like my Xbox 360 it does everything that I want it to and much more. I recommend this console to you if you have been thinking about buying one, however if you already own a Original Xbox 360 console then personally I think it's abit unnecessary to upgrade.

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Every penny is every little bit of pleasure

I love the xbox! i have had mine since it first come out and i have never looked back it allows you too play games join social sites "FB" watch tv what more could you ask for? Free online maybe? Yes only bad thing is that you have to pay go online which is not that expensive but this system holds alot of memory and also takes USB keyboards which help alot with online gamings. You can make as many account profiles on this computer so if this is being shared by 2 or more people perfect it has the capacity to hold a lot of work that has been created.

do not need a wireless adapter this has it built in which saves you money, its touch and play like if you want to turn it off you swipe the off button or to open the tray you swipe it and it feels gooood!

The xbox has alot to offer, gaming, tv, music, saving your images to your xbox or going online to enjoy games and games that are not out for the ps3.

Mine has not had any issues at all, so it seems this has been improved alot since the very firsy console which broke alot.

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A great purchase for me

Although I am still very attached to my Playstation 2 I was nagged and nagged and finally decided it was time for an upgrade. I find games consoles far too expensive when they are just released so always wait a while before buying one.I bought mine from a friend for £100 with a few games, it is currently available new from around £140 and used for about half this price.

The console itself I have in white, in the picture the console is stood up, although mine is laid flat as I was told in a game shop that standing the console up can actually destroy the discs.

The console has a disk drive which can be opened my using your controller or pressing the button on the console. There are ports to plug in two controllers which can either be plugged in all the time or if they have a battery pack they can be charged and used without the wire.There are also two USB ports. You can plug in a headset to communicate with other players when you play games online. There is now Kinect which is a motion sensor bar which you connect to your XBox to enable you to play games without any controller as it scans your body movements. I have to get one of these!

XBox games for the console can be picked up from a couple of pounds in used games stores and online.

Well as consoles go this console at first seemed like any other, put in the disc and play the game. But as time went on I was using it more and more. Now I use the console as my DVD player, it's as simple as putting the DVD in and pressing play, you can also go back and forward to different chapters and pause as you can with most DVD players.If you are connected to the internet you can also watch films through your console from Netflix, Lovefilm and Sky player. I did this for a few weeks using Netflix and it worked fine with no problems but I didn't like the range of films from the provider so got rid of it after my trial.

The next thing I tried was putting my USB stick into the Xbox. When we had a few friends round for a party I put my USB stick into the XBox and was able to create a playlist from my music files which played away all night, you can also set it to shuffle or play in a certain order. Strange light effects and coloured lines shoot across the TV screen making you dizzy (like windows media player). Playing music through the Xbox and TV is a feature I have used quite often as I find the volume louder than through a laptopn or CD player.

Another day I put in my USB stick and was able to watch a slideshow of holiday photos and wedding photos on the television. This is another feature I have used a few times! Anything you have on your UBS stick can be displayed on your television through the XBox.

I personally don't really use the online gaming, it's hard enough trying to pass a game in single player mode never mind trying to beat die hard gamers from all over the world but I know lots and lots of people who love playing online against friends.

OVERALLConsidering this console acts as a music player, photo album, dvd player and a games console for me I think it was a great buy. There is a huge selections of games for all ages available for the console and lots of extras you can buy for it such as the kinect, headsets and hard drives if you need more space. I tend to delete saved games once I have completed the game so I don't ver run short of space.

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As I said this system is great and an essential system to own for any gamer.

Xbox has been one of the top gaming consoles for so many years for a reason. The system works quickly and efficiently, the game selection is vast and notable, and the features are fantastic. This newer type model of the xbox in particular looks great and works great. I have yet to have a problem with my 4gb xbox 360 and have used it quite a bit. Games are what I mostly use it for, but the features such as youtube, bing search engine, arcade game downloads, videos, etc. are great little features that spice up the system and give it everything you need to be entertained for a long time. I would recommend this xbox to anyone looking to upgrade from an older model xbox or anyone who has yet to buy an xbox who loves video games. You will not be disappointed at all and you will understand why when you buy one!

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All in all this is a great console only let down by its amount of memory

This new xbox console has many improvements from the past consoles starting firstly with the fan. the fan in this new console is incredibly quite compared to the previous consoles. This cools down the xbox console enough to prevent overheating whilst keeping the noise to a minimum allowing for much better game play as there is no longer an annoying constant hum in the background which gets consistently more annoying. This new console also contains many more air vents which cool the console down dramatically compared to the old console and eliminating the red ring of death the previous consoles are infamous for. Also if this fails to cool the console down enough, as a safety the console will automatically shut down preventing and overheating.

It does have one disadvantage however and that is the available memory. the 4G memory storage amount if much to low in my opinion and a larger hard drive would be much better allowing for more game-play or movies and music etc.

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Very good Console for the whole Family

This is my 5th & 6th XBOX360, and no I didnt buy that many because it was so damn good. The original XBOX 360 console was very much a hashy work in progress if you ask me, was really noisy and the red light errors were off the charts(Anyone who owned one knows what I am talking about) I continually had to get it replaced.

However they released the Elite which was no real improvement and then they thought lets try and give the customers a console that actually works and thankfully this is the console we wanted way back on the initial 360 launch. This is the XBOX360 S the "S" standing for slim which is kind of false but it is more of a sleek design. The red rings of death are gone and hopefully will never return. The biggest difference that has helped that situation is the change in the vents situatuon on the console. Before they were on the back and didnt work whatsoever, so everyone bought cooling fans to help out but they were super noisy and was obviously an extra charge on top of the console itself. The new vent however is on the side of the machine and work really well and doesnt take anything away from the design(If anything they actually make it look cooler) So now that they have sorted out the errors and the noise is significantly reduced and it is a much more enjoyable experience because of those two things alone. Along with these improvements to the design of the hardware they re-tuned the software and now that they released Kinect (You are the controller) its more family friendly & the XBOX has become the best console for every home in my opinion. The playstation Move is just a re-hash of the Wii and uninventive and the Wii is getting well past its sell by date.

Even though we are closing in on the next generation now (Possibly the XBOX720) the 360 is still selling and it is because it has all the bases covered and they and each base is done better than there competitors. The big plus the 360 has always had from its launch to now is the best controller by more than a country mile.

All in all the console is the best of the current generation models and if it can make the same strides and get it right first time with the 720(Probably named something else upon release) Then they will be on top for some time to come.

Still a good buy for a couple of years before the next model comes out

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Great for all ages, my mum even has one!

I've had my Xbox 360 for about a month now, it seemed like a lot of money to spend in one go (over £200 from Amazon) but I must admit, I've had a lot of value from it already!

The Xbox looks pretty slick, unlike the slightly cheap looking white Wii I had previously the matte black Xbox 360 looks right at home and not childish or garish at all on my TV unit alongside the black sky box and the black TV. Apart from the subtle silver lettering it could very easily just be a DVD player to the untrained eye.

Its really easy to set up, you don't even really need to read the instructions, its very obvious where all the cables are supposed to go, the packaging is easy to get into and well organised unlike some products where you end up with a million little bits of polystyrene and plastic all over the floor! You can just turn on the Xbox and follow the simple instructions and before you know it you're all set up and ready to go, there are even handy video tutorials the first time you set up the console.

Navigating around the menu is really easy, especially with the wireless controller so you don't have to worry about a wire trailing across the living room as a trip hazard or a way to pull the console off the shelf if you get a bit carried away (yes, that happened with my PS2!). The menu screen is clear, and its easy to find whatever you're looking for.

The console comes with a free trial of Xbox live, again this is really easy to set up although typing in e-mail addresses and wep key numbers via the controller is a complete pain in the behind, luckily you only have to do it once! The Xbox can connect to your home wifi which is nice and simple, cuts down on the need for more wires and means you have more options about where to site the console as you don't need to worry about keeping it near a phone socket. You will be assigned a completely random and probably very odd username for Xbox live, but you can change it for free so don't worry you won't have to go online as 'CurtainLemon683' or whatever equally ridiculous handle you're assigned! You can use Xbox live to communicate with other gamers, or to buy extra content for games. I believe you can also stream films but I haven't looked into that yet.

The Xbox is easy to set up, easy to use and a lot of fun, just be careful you don't get too addicted! Its definitely my favourite of the consoles around at the moment.